Colin Tessier, Food Share Network

Posted 
on Feb 24, 2016
 
Dan Mercer introduced our guest speaker, Colin Tessier, a consultant with Saint Vincent de Paul society, currently working on his Masters of Leadership from Royal Roads University.  He previously was Executive Director of the Mustard Seed and is passionate about bringing positive change to issues of poverty that affect so many in our communities.
 
 
 
The Food Share Network is the organization that Harbourside Rotary, along with other area Rotary clubs raised $100,000 with the car raffle.  The $100,000 was matched by the Victoria Foundation.  The Food Share Network consists of over 45 organizations - from Food Banks to schools to First Nations.  They are looking to start delivery of fruits and vegetables to food banks in April.
 
Food banks currently serve approximately 20,000 people per year; and, the figure is probably as high as 50,000 people don't have regular access to healthy food.
 
This is NOT just a project; but, it is changing the way people have access to food.  Food that is currently going to the landfill.  Once the project is up and running, they are looking at scalability and increasing it across the CRD.  It is also looking at going beyond the traditional food banks and providing fresh fruit and vegetables to working poor, First Nations and school smoothie programs.  Existing programs will continue as they are; this project is around perishable foods.  It is a huge logistic project and the first year will be a year to 'work out the bugs' and figure out how to scale the project up.
 
To date, all of the programs serving the hungry have been siloed and competitive for resources.  Now, they are working collaboratively and sharing data and information that previously was not shared.  There is considerable annualized costs to run this so they are looking at ongoing donations as well as capital cost donations and have approached the Provincial Employees Foundation, VanCity Foundation and the Vancouver Foundation.
 
There is a Call for Proposal from the Victoria Foundation for a Lead Organization to be appointed by the end of March, with implementation in April 2016.  The Food Share Network is excited about the project.  The Car Raffle started a community conversation and the momentum is building.  They are excited to feature Rotary's role in their communication and public relations.  
 
Lisa Collins thanked Colin and presented him with a thank you card and a gift of a lunch for an at-risk youth with the Threshold Society.